Accreditation has two fundamental purposes: to certify the quality of the institution or program and to assist in the improvement of the institution or program.

The bodies conducting institutional accreditation are national or regional in scope and comprise the institutions that have achieved and continue to maintain accreditation. A specialized (or program) body conducting accreditation of a program preparing students for a profession or occupation is often closely associated with professional associations in the field.

Both institutional and specialized bodies conduct the accreditation process by using a common pattern. The pattern requires integral self-study of the institution or program, followed by an on-site visit by an evaluation committee and a subsequent review and decision by a central governing group. Within this general pattern, the various accrediting bodies have developed a variety of individual procedures adapted to their own circumstances.

Members of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) have been found by CHEA to meet specific criteria of procedure and organization regarded as necessary for the effective conduct of the accrediting process. A CHEA-recognized accrediting body can be regarded as qualified to conduct evaluations of institutions and/or programs seeking accreditation, and accreditation by such bodies is generally recognized and accepted in higher education.

Institutional or specialized accreditation cannot guarantee the quality of individual graduates or of individual courses within an institution or program, but can give reasonable assurance of the context and quality of the education offered. Both institutional and specialized accreditation speak to the conditions of the institution or program and not to specific details of educational outcome.

Institutional Accreditation.  An institutional accrediting body considers the characteristics of whole institutions. For this reason, an institutional accrediting body gives attention not only to the educational programs of the institutions it accredits, but also to other such institutional characteristics as the student personnel services, financial conditions, and administrative strength.

The criteria of an institutional accrediting body are broad, as is demanded by the attention to an entire institution and by the presence in the United States of postsecondary institutions of widely different purposes and scopes. Such breadth of criteria also provide encouragement to institutions to try innovative curricula and procedures and to adopt them when they prove successful. Accreditation of an institution by an institutional accrediting body certifies to the general public that the institution:

Institutional improvement is encouraged by an institutional accrediting body through the requirement that the accredited institution conduct periodic self-evaluations seeking to identify what the institution does well, determining the areas in which improvement is needed, and developing plans to address needed improvements. While the certification of accreditation indicates an acceptable level of institutional quality, any institution, however excellent, is capable of improvement, which must come from its own clear identification and understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.

Institutional improvement is also encouraged by the institutional accrediting body through the advice and counsel provided by the visiting evaluation committee, which comprises experienced educators drawn from accredited institutions, and by the publications of the accrediting body.

Specialized Accreditation.  A specialized accrediting body focuses its attention on a particular program within an institution of higher education. The close relationship of the specialized accrediting body with the professional association for the field helps ensure that the requirements for accreditation are related to the current requirements for professional practice.

In a number of fields (e.g., medicine, law, dentistry), graduation from an accredited program in the field is a requirement for receiving a license to practice in the field. Thus, specialized accreditation is recognized as providing a basic assurance of the scope and quality of professional or occupational preparation. This focus of specialized accreditation leads to accreditation requirements that are sharply directed to the nature of the program, including specific requirements for resources needed to provide a program satisfactory for professional preparation. Because of this limitation of focus to a single program, many specialized accrediting bodies require that the institution offering the program be institutionally accredited before consideration can be given to program accreditation.

Improvement of a program is encouraged through specialized accreditation by the use of the specific accreditation requirements as objective characteristics that must be attained for a program; thus, for a non-accredited program, the accreditation requirements serve as specific goals to be achieved. In addition to accrediting standards, assistance for program improvement is provided through the counsel of the visiting accreditation evaluation committee, which includes practitioners of the profession and experienced and successful faculty members and administrators in other institutions.

Institutional and Specialized Accreditation.  Institutional and specialized accreditation are complementary. The focus of an institutional accrediting body on an institution, as a total operating unit, provides assurance that the general characteristics of the institution have been examined and found to be satisfactory. The focus of a specialized accrediting body on a specific program provides assurance that the details of that particular program meet the external accreditation standards. Institutional accreditation, concerned with evaluating the institution as a whole, does not seek to deal with any particular program in great detail, although programs are reviewed as a part of the consideration of the entire institution. Specialized accreditation, speaking to a specific program, does not seek to deal significantly with the general conditions of the institution, although certain general conditions are considered in the context in which accredited programs are offered.